Climate change news and doomscrolling: An examination of influencing factors and psychological effects.

Introduction: Climate change is one of the greatest threats to human life, and news about it can significantly impact mental health. Furthermore, doomscrolling, that is habitual negative consumption, may further exacerbate these effects. Understanding the associated risks and protective factors is crucial for supporting the most affected groups.

Long-Term Stability of Spatial Distribution and Peak Dynamics of Subthalamic Beta Power in Parkinson's Disease Patients.

Background: Subthalamic beta oscillations are a biomarker for bradykinesia and rigidity in Parkinson's disease (PD), incorporated as a feedback signal in adaptive deep brain stimulation with potential for guiding electrode contact selection. Understanding their longitudinal stability is essential for successful clinical implementation.

Objectives: We aimed to analyze the long-term dynamics of beta peak parameters and beta power distribution along electrodes.

Decreased scene-selective activity within the posterior intraparietal cortex in amblyopic adults.

Introduction: Amblyopia is a developmental disorder associated with reduced performance in visually guided tasks, including binocular navigation within natural environments. To help understand the underlying neurological disorder, we used fMRI to test the impact of amblyopia on the functional organization of scene-selective cortical areas, including the posterior intraparietal gyrus scene-selective (PIGS) area, a recently discovered region that responds selectively to ego-motion within naturalistic environments.

Methods: Nineteen amblyopic adults (10 females) and thirty age-matched controls (15 females) participated in this study.

Aging modulates large-scale neural network interactions during speech comprehension.

Speech comprehension in noisy environments constitutes a critical challenge in everyday life and affects people of all ages. This challenging listening situation can be alleviated using semantic context to predict upcoming words (i.e.

Sex and APOE4-specific links between cardiometabolic risk factors and white matter alterations in individuals with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.

Early detection of pathological changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has garnered significant attention in the last few decades as interventions aiming to prevent progression will likely be most effective when initiated early. White matter (WM) alterations are among the earliest changes in AD, yet limited work has comprehensively characterized the effects of AD risk factors on WM. In older adults with a family history of AD, we investigated the sex-specific and APOE genotype-related relationships between WM microstructure and risk factors.

Functional and structural brain asymmetries in sign language processing.

The capacity for language constitutes a cornerstone of human cognition and distinguishes our species from other animals. Research in the cognitive sciences has demonstrated that this capacity is not bound to speech but can also be externalized in the form of sign language. Sign languages are the naturally occurring languages of the deaf and rely on movements and configurations of hands, arms, face, and torso in space.

Functional and structural brain asymmetries in language processing.

The lateralization of language to the left hemisphere of the human brain constitutes one of the classic examples of asymmetry in biology. At the same time, it is also commonly understood that damage to the left hemisphere does not lead to a complete loss of all linguistic abilities. These seemingly contradictory findings indicate that neither our cognitive capacity for language nor its neural substrates are monolithic.

Cerebellocerebral connectivity predicts body mass index: a new open-source Python-based framework for connectome-based predictive modeling.

Background: The cerebellum is one of the major central nervous structures consistently altered in obesity. Its role in higher cognitive function, parts of which are affected by obesity, is mediated through projections to and from the cerebral cortex. We therefore investigated the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and cerebellocerebral connectivity.

Association of Diet and Waist-to-Hip Ratio With Brain Connectivity and Memory in Aging.

Importance: Epidemiological studies suggest that lifestyle factors are associated with risk of dementia. However, few studies have examined the association of diet and waist to hip ratio (WHR) with hippocampus connectivity and cognitive health.

Objective: To ascertain how longitudinal changes in diet quality and WHR during midlife are associated with hippocampal connectivity and cognitive function in later life.

Relevance of Probabilistic Reversal Learning for Adolescent Drinking Trajectories.

One of the many human capabilities acquired during adolescence is the adaptivity in changing environments. In this longitudinal study, we investigated this adaptivity, as measured by probabilistic reversal learning (PReL) tasks, in N = 143 adolescents at ages 14, 16 and 18. Computational modelling and functional magnetic resonance imaging were applied to identify the neurocognitive processes underlying reversal learning and its development.

The monthly rhythm of the brain-heart connection.

Integrating the menstrual cycle into heart-brain research is a crucial step toward advancing sex-specific medicine and improving outcomes for female brain and body health.

Core dimensions of human material perception.

Visually categorizing and comparing materials is crucial for everyday behavior, but what organizational principles underlie our mental representation of materials? Here, we used a large-scale data-driven approach to uncover core latent dimensions of material representations from behavior. First, we created an image dataset of 200 systematically sampled materials and 600 photographs (STUFF dataset, https://osf.io/myutc/).

Neural tracking of auditory statistical regularities in adults with and without dyslexia.

Listeners implicitly use statistical regularities to segment continuous sound input into meaningful units, eg transitional probabilities between syllables to segment a speech stream into separate words. Implicit learning of such statistical regularities in a novel stimulus stream is reflected in a synchronization of neural responses to the sequential stimulus structure. The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that neural tracking of the statistical stimulus structure is reduced in individuals with dyslexia who have weaker reading and spelling skills, and possibly also weaker statistical learning abilities in general, compared to healthy controls.

Considerations and recommendations from the ISMRM diffusion study group for preclinical diffusion MRI: Part 2-Ex vivo imaging: Added value and acquisition.

The value of preclinical diffusion MRI (dMRI) is substantial. While dMRI enables in vivo non-invasive characterization of tissue, ex vivo dMRI is increasingly being used to probe tissue microstructure and brain connectivity. Ex vivo dMRI has several experimental advantages including higher SNR and spatial resolution compared to in vivo studies, and enabling more advanced diffusion contrasts for improved microstructure and connectivity characterization.

Aging Impacts Basic Auditory and Timing Processes.

Deterioration in the peripheral and central auditory systems is common in older adults and often leads to hearing and speech comprehension difficulties. Even when hearing remains intact, electrophysiological data of older adults frequently exhibit altered neural responses along the auditory pathway, reflected in variability in phase alignment of neural activity to speech sound onsets. However, it remains unclear whether challenges in speech processing in aging stem from more fundamental deficits in auditory and timing processes.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cortical excitability and therapeutic efficacy.

Background/objectives: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) currently lacks a universally accepted biomarker or diagnostic test, underscoring the need for objective and effective assessment methods. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has emerged as a promising tool for both assessing cortical excitability and providing therapeutic interventions. This study conducted two independent meta-analyses to evaluate: 1) the potential of TMS in assessing cortical excitability, and 2) its therapeutic efficacy in managing ADHD symptoms.

Longitudinal Changes of Quantitative Brain Tissue Properties Induced by Balance Training.

The human brain can show remarkable experience-induced plasticity under conditions such as aging and pathology. However, the mapping of changes provided by many imaging approaches often lacks specificity with respect to biological tissue properties, which is relevant for treatment optimization and the evaluation of health-promoting lifestyle factors. Training-induced structural changes in cortical and subcortical gray matter likely reflect a mixture of various microstructural processes.

Integration of Euclidean and path distances in hippocampal maps.

The hippocampus is a key region for forming mental maps of our environment. These maps represent spatial information such as distances between landmarks. A cognitive map can allow for flexible inference of spatial relationships that have never been directly experienced before.

Considerations and recommendations from the ISMRM diffusion study group for preclinical diffusion MRI: Part 1: In vivo small-animal imaging.

Small-animal diffusion MRI (dMRI) has been used for methodological development and validation, characterizing the biological basis of diffusion phenomena, and comparative anatomy. The steps from animal setup and monitoring, to acquisition, analysis, and interpretation are complex, with many decisions that may ultimately affect what questions can be answered using the resultant data. This work aims to present selected considerations and recommendations from the diffusion community on best practices for preclinical dMRI of in vivo animals.

Considerations and recommendations from the ISMRM Diffusion Study Group for preclinical diffusion MRI: Part 3-Ex vivo imaging: Data processing, comparisons with microscopy, and tractography.

Preclinical diffusion MRI (dMRI) has proven value in methods development and validation, characterizing the biological basis of diffusion phenomena, and comparative anatomy. While dMRI enables in vivo non-invasive characterization of tissue, ex vivo dMRI is increasingly being used to probe tissue microstructure and brain connectivity. Ex vivo dMRI has several experimental advantages that facilitate high spatial resolution and high SNR images, cutting-edge diffusion contrasts, and direct comparison with histological data as a methodological validation.

Investigating Connectivity Gradients in Schizophrenia: Integrating Functional, Structural, and Genetic Perspectives.

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder characterized by disruptions in cognition, behavior, and emotions. Extensive research has uncovered alterations in a single modality (either the brain structure or function) in schizophrenia. However, the limitation is that a single modality could not offer a synchronous result between the brain structure and function because of different samples.